which software to 100% wipe hdd?

multijesture

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windows reformatting does not actually delete the files, so which software to use?

planning to sell my old 3.5 hdd 80gb and 2.5 hdd 500gb
 

wwenze

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Yea, DBAN approved for use by SAF, dun pray pray.
 

kracie17

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windows reformatting does not actually delete the files, so which software to use?

planning to sell my old 3.5 hdd 80gb and 2.5 hdd 500gb

You can look at DBAN. Its free and its easy to use. But to completely destroy your data, it will take some time.. I tried that on a 1TB, it took one month to clear. :s22:
 

tmfwy

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windows reformatting does not actually delete the files, so which software to use?

planning to sell my old 3.5 hdd 80gb and 2.5 hdd 500gb
Active KillDisk.
Works for multiple HDDs

TBH
Unless you are some sort of celebrity
Or you have compromising pictures / data inside,
1 pass zeroes ought to be sufficient
If it isn't, why are you selling it?? You should be using it as a stress buster tool.
Find a safe and unique way to destroy the platters inside...
 

Hailgod

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agree with 1pass zero is more than enough. multiple pass is really pointless and a waste of time/resources.
 

watzup_ken

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Ccleaner does that for you. I normally only do 1 pass. If the hard disk is slow or the storage size is huge, it will take a very long time even for 1 pass. :o
 

hlots123

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long long ago before ssd & large hdds, i used cmrr's hdderase for the hdd's built-in secure erase function, http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/secure-erase.html
but last time i boot hdderase from diskette to run iirc, so tats obsolete now
The Secure Erase (SE) command was added to the open ANSI standards that control disk drives, at the request of CMRR at UCSD. The ANSI T13.org committee oversees the ATA interface specification (also called IDE) and the ANSI T10.org committee governs the SCSI interface specification.
Secure erase is built into the hard disk drive itself and thus is far less susceptible to malicious software attack than external software utilities.
The SE command is implemented in all ATA interface drives manufactured after 2001 (drives with capacities greater than 15 GB), according to testing by CMRR. A standardized internal secure erase command also exists for SCSI drives, but is optional and not currently implemented in SCSI drives tested.
Secure erase is a positive easy-to-use data destroy command, amounting to “electronic data shredding.” Executing the command causes a drive to internally completely erase all possible user data record areas by overwriting, including g-list records that could contain readable data in reallocated disk sectors (sectors that the drive no longer uses because they have hard errors).
SE is a simple addition to the existing “format drive” command present in computer operating systems and storage system software, and adds no cost to hard disk drives.
Because the Secure Erase command is carried out within hard disk drives, no additional software is required either.
Secure erase does a single on-track erasure of the data on the disk drive. The U.S. National Security Agency published an Information Assurance Approval of single pass overwrite, after technical testing at CMRR showed that multiple on-track overwrite passes gave no additional erasure.
it seems partedmagic has tat secure erase function - if i ever need to erase hdd i might try tat see how...
https://partedmagic.com/secure-erase/
 

commach

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I rarely do total erase for small capacity HDD nowadays, not worth the time and effort doing so. I will remove partition, initialise, format the HDD then copy filled the entire capacity with a movies file in many folders then remove partition again follow by initialise and format.

If the next user trying to recover what was previously stored in the HDD, he/she recover a movie and likely some corrupted/incomplete data files. All these take less than 30 minutes, way faster than writing zeros to the disk.

Not totally safe but good enough for me.
 

Meteor84

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easy. boot into ubuntu via bootable usb.

dc3dd wipe=<dev path> (most likely /dev/sda but check first)
 

86technie

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Acronis True Image.
No not the paid one, Seagate and WD have free version.
The secure wipe takes very long to complete depending
On the HDD size.
 

jtjt00

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Ccleaner does that for you. I normally only do 1 pass. If the hard disk is slow or the storage size is huge, it will take a very long time even for 1 pass. :o

True, 3 and half hours for a 1TB external HDD via USB3.0 just a single pass using Ccleaner Drive Wiper.
 

watzup_ken

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True, 3 and half hours for a 1TB external HDD via USB3.0 just a single pass using Ccleaner Drive Wiper.

I tried 3 passes before on a 2TB drive, and it takes an insane amount of time to complete. Something along the line of 16 hours if I am not mistaken. Did that once and never tried it again. :s22:
 
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